I watched Akagami no Shirayuki-hime and quite liked it

October 2, 2015

In my early views of the season I listed Akagami
no Shirayuki-hime as 'not for me' after watching two episodes. Recently I decided to
pick it up again, partly because this season leaves me bored during the
week and partly because it kept getting praised on Twitter. I wound up
quite liking it.

If you saw only the first couple of episodes, what you'd expect from
the rest of the show is the typical otome-game pattern where Shirayuki
would keep getting kidnapped and then rescued by a succession of men
who would wind up orbiting her and perhaps snarling at each other.
This is not what happens at all. Instead the kidnappings in the first
two episodes are the only instances. From episode 3 onward, Shirayuki
pretty much handles her own problems. Nor is there any romantic tension;
it's very clear that Shirayuki and Zen are a couple.

Shirayuki-hime is not your typical romance show,
or indeed your typical show at all; I summarized it as 'charming'.
Some people will dislike it, because it doesn't really have conflicts,
tension, or dramatics over the romance. Basically all problems that
come up are cleared away by the end of the episode (or at most the end
of the next episode), and to enjoy the show you have to be able to
enjoy watching Shirayuki relentlessly and charmingly clear away every
obstacle in her way through optimism, hard work, and stubborn refusal
to yield.

(I'm serious about that. Shirayuki bulldozes every single obstacle in
her way over the course of the show, regardless of what it is. She may
be very nice but absolutely no one who gets in her way has any chance
of success.)

I found the whole thing just what I was in the mood for. Shirayuki and
Zen both came across as far more mature and sure of themselves than the
typical romance story protagonists, the romance progresses satisfactorily,
and pretty much all the characters are nicely drawn (even if they're not
deep or conflicted) and I enjoyed spending time with them. The show is
not afraid to be a bit subtle with stuff. Mind you, there were things
I didn't entirely like and I suspect that my enjoyment was increased by
being able to batch-watch it.